File this one under “Teaching a man to fish vs. giving man a fish.” We’ve all read plenty of stories about the need to improve financial literacy. Indeed, the lack of financial literacy has been fingered as one of the primary culprits behind savings and investing woes.
We’ve also seen, especially since the White House and the DOL began a highly public crusade for a new fiduciary rule, a multitude of stories about the damage to retirement savers wrought by conflicts-of-interest. The president himself, as well as many much more qualified to say so, have said how these currently legal self-dealing transactions have cost billions in retirement savings every year.
Here’s an idea, though, that hasn’t got nearly as much press—what if the two issues—financial literacy and the fiduciary standard—are linked. A spokesman for AARP recently said the public “generally assumes that all advisers currently have a fiduciary-type standard and are already acting in their best interest” (see “Exclusive Interview: AARP’s David Certner says of DOL’s Proposed Fiduciary Rule: ‘Disclosure Alone Not Enough’,” FiduciaryNews.com, June 16, 2015).
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Christopher Carosa
Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).
